What's it like to be a workaholic? Well, it's a lot of late nights and cups of coffee. You're always going, and your planner is normally pretty packed. But, despite being glued to your work at all times and sometimes never catching a break, you love it. That's the tricky part — you're pursuing your passions and don't even realize that you haven't slowed down. You love the rush of creating something or figuring out a problem, even though it's midnight. Take it from me, aka, the girl who's a workaholic. It's key to know a few things, especially if this sounds like one of your friends.
You should know that this girl is in a constant struggle between wanting to follow her dreams and wanting to curl up in bed and take a nap. She'll get frustrated at times and will go for a run to clear her head. Then she'll open up her computer a few hours later, and be back at it again.
Her greatest ideas will come to her in the middle of the night or when she's hanging out with her friends. She'll jot them down in a note on her phone, and think about them endlessly until tomorrow. At the end of the day, it's a lot more fun thank you think. But, it's also a pretty huge part of her lifestyle. Before you assume anything about a workaholic, you should know these few things.
On the one hand, the girl who's a workaholic isn't going to waste her time. In fact, she's found ways to make her life more efficient. She'll order her coffee from an app, or skip out on activities that really don't interest her. Those are valuable seconds that she could be using to pursue her passions, you see?
On the other hand, she understands that sometimes it would be OK to slow down — to do nothing for an afternoon, or just aimlessly wander around the shops downtown. It's all a balance game, and she's just trying to find her footwork.
Working all the time means the workaholic might not be getting as much sleep as she really should. Take it from me: I'm one of those girls who can't put her laptop down, and sometimes doesn't go to bed before 2 a.m. I'll get caught up in my latest project, and suddenly hours have gone by. In a lot of ways, it's sort of fun to get lost in your passions to that extent, but catching some Z's would be nice, too.
So, this girl wants you to know that she's always a little bit tired. She's gotten into her groove, but wouldn't be opposed to making afternoon naps a thing in the real world. This Saturday night, don't push her to go out. Instead, suggest watching a bunch of movies and then hitting the hay.
Disconnecting would be a dream for the girl who's always working, but it's something she hasn't quite figured out just yet. She's trying to learn how to turn her phone off and get away from the screens. At night, she'll put her cell across the room and try not to touch it until the alarms go off in the morning, but then her brain is still running a mile a minute. The struggle's real.
Truth is, she likely needs your help on this one. Talk to her about what she's working on, just to get it off her mind — then change the subject and bring her back down to Earth. She loves what she's doing, and sometimes just gets caught up in the rush of it all.
Especially when you're in your 20s and pursuing your passions, it's key to put yourself first. The girl who's a workaholic doesn't have any trouble saying "no." She'll give herself the time and space she needs to get what she wants to done, and puts herself first in most situations. When drama is going down in your friend group, for example, you'll notice that she backs away. Her priorities are clear, and even in her relationships she'll try and find some "me" time.
When it comes to multi-tasking, this girl is a total pro. She'll eat her meals while working away on a project or catching up with her friends on FaceTime. She has every food delivery app on her phone, and rotates which restaurant she orders from every week. At this point, she even has a solid relationship with the drivers who drop off pasta at her door. The barista at the coffee shop makes sure her order is ready in the morning, and she swings by to grab it before running off to the next thing on her to-do list.
Keeping up with the group chat is difficult for the girl who's a workaholic. Truth is, she's checking her phone on the reg, but rarely slows down enough to give time to every notification. She'll take a second to scan through the text messages, but then gets distracted before she can hit "send."
You and your friends sort of just know by now that she takes forever to respond. You'll call her and even slide into the DMs to try to get her attention. She pinky promises that she's not trying to ignore you. (Please understand her on this one, OK?)
This girl couldn't care less about what everybody else is doing. She understands that everyone is on their own life path, and that it's OK to not be interested in the same things as your best friend. She'll never give in to peer pressure. She has such a strong inner compass because of her "work hard, play hard" attitude, and her gut tells all.
Especially when you're 20-something, the world always want to give its opinion on what you're doing and where you should be. To a workaholic like this girl, that's all just noise. Her ambition has her headed in the right direction, and she can't wait to see where she goes.
